1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an expandable and collapsible peripheral device, and method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The strong growth in demand for portable consumer electronics is driving the need for high-capacity storage devices. Non-volatile semiconductor memory devices, such as flash memory storage cards, are becoming widely used to meet the ever-growing demands on digital information storage and exchange. Their portability, versatility and rugged design, along with their high reliability and large storage capacity, have made such memory devices ideal for use in a wide variety of electronic devices, including for example digital cameras, digital music players, video game consoles, PDAs and cellular telephones.
One popular type of flash memory device is the CompactFlash® memory card manufactured by SanDisk Corporation, Milpitas, Calif. While used in a variety of different applications, the CompactFlash memory card has been adopted as the de facto standard in the professional and consumer imaging markets. While there are several reasons why this is so, including the large storage capacity and low cost per Megabyte, the form factor of the CompactFlash memory card has proven to be a significant contributing factor. At 43 mm by 36 mm, the card is large enough for easy manipulation, yet small enough for convenient transport and use in current high resolution digital cameras. Professionals and consumers are comfortable with and have grown accustomed to this size memory card.
A few years ago, a coalition of member companies of the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) developed the ExpressCard® peripheral as a new standard for PC card technology. Compared to older PC cards, ExpressCard technology uses a simple connector and eliminates the older PC card controller by using direct connections to PCI-Express and USB ports in the host device. The result is faster transfer rates, better performance and lower cost for the card slot implementations in host systems as compared to older generation PC cards.
Given these advantages, there are compelling technology and business reasons why the popularity of the ExpressCard standard will continue to grow. However, standard ExpressCards come in two sizes: the ExpressCard/34 is 75 mm by 34 mm, and the ExpressCard/54 has sides of 75 mm and 54 mm. Both of these are significantly larger than the CompactFlash card. As such, consumers and professionals who have grown accustomed to the CompactFlash form factor may be slow to adopt the ExpressCard standard. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a peripheral device capable of being used in accordance with the ExpressCard standard, yet also having the size, look and feel of the CompactFlash card.